Santa Maria police officer kills another officer

January 28, 2012

Santa Maria police shot and killed a fellow officer early today while attempting to serve a warrant on the man for alleged sexual misconduct against a minor. [KCOY]

Department officials are not releasing the identity of the dead officer until they have had an opportunity to inform his family.

Department officials said they had been conducting an internal investigation into the suspect officer’s actions. At about 1 a.m., officers tried to arrest the suspect officer while on duty at the corner of McElhaney Avenue and Broadway.

As police tried to make an arrest, the suspect officer drew his weapon and fired. An officer fired back striking him once. He died at Marian Medical Center.

An investigation into the incident will be conducted by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.

The comments below represent the opinion of the writer and do not represent the views or policies of CalCoastNews.com. Please address the Policies, events and arguments, not the person. Constructive debate is good; mockery, taunting, and name calling is not. Comment Guidelines

Mr. Magoo

This sounds like it’s right out of the movie “Training Day.” Too weird.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 2:39 pm

MaryMalone

Maybe they thought the target officer would have created a siege/ stand-off if they caught him at home, where he may have stockpiled weapons, etc.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 3:37 pm

Nodonut

Of course they all have a stock pile of Weapons ……..Just like all the Military ppl right?!?

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 4:18 pm

danika

You mean like those automatic weapons they have to purchase themselves and get to keep when they retire?

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/29/2012 6:13 am

MaryMalone

NO, not “like those automatic weapons they have to purchase themselves and get to keep when they retire.”

…In 2009, Paso Robles Police Chief Lisa Solomon was found to have not properly licensed a gun that allegedly came from the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s office. The lack of registration became public after a man stole Solomon’s loaded semi-automatic gun from her unlocked car.

Even though the gun was not properly licensed, then Atascadero Police Chief Jim Mulhall returned it to Solomon and did not take action against her for the failure to register her privately owned firearm even though he is in the business of gun distributing.

MULHALL, WHO RESIGNED EARLIER THIS YEAR, STARTED DEALING GUNS FOR PROFIT IN 1989. THROUGH HIS HOME BASED GUN DEALERSHIP, MULHALL EARNS BETWEEN $100,000 AND $170,000 A YEAR, according to Mantra.

Oakland police used tear gas and “flash” grenades Saturday to break up hundreds of Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing rocks and flares at officers and arresting more than 200 people in clashes that injured three officers and at least one demonstrator….

Peace officers throughout California have bought more than 7,600 assault weapons that are outlawed for civilians in the decade since state lawmakers allowed the practice, according to data obtained by the Associated Press after it was revealed that federal authorities are investigating illegal gun sales by law enforcement…Today, about 1,300 of the nearly 10,000 LAPD officers have assault rifles, more than 500 of them purchased by the officers themselves…

The probe focuses on peace officers selling weapons that most civilians cannot legally buy and sell, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos said. He said he did not know the types of weapons involved.

“There’s an ongoing federal investigation into Sacramento-area law enforcement, some of whom are with the Sheriff’s Department,” Ramos said. “We weren’t the only ones.

Roseville’s police chief also confirmed to KCRA on Friday that an officer in his department is being investigated in connection with a federal probe into the sale of illegal weapons.

Sacramento Police Department confirmed that one of its employees is being investigated. Scramento County Sheriff Scott Jones confirmed that several deputies are on administrative leave as targets of the investigation….

—————

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/29/2012 7:27 am

Nodonut

Preventable! What idiot tries to arrest another Officer that is On Duty in Full gear, Dumb ass! Lack of training? or Supervision? Wow, not just PAso Robles huh?!

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 4:16 pm

Bob

Absolutely foolish that SMPD would organize an arrest of a on duty patrol officer out on a public street. The foolish watch commander should have found a reason to call the officer back to the station and then make the arrest.. Ridiculous that the command staff would allow this to occur on a public street and endanger the public with a rogue officer engaged in a police on police shooting.

At the very least, the police supervisors and managers exercised poor judgment in the execution of this arrest. The ultimate fault lays with Chief Macagni who undoubtedly authorized the arrest.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 2:38 pm

GeminiSappho

I did not get to see the streaming video so I appologize if this was asked but if the officer (according to KCOY’s website) “Knew we Knew, he was going to be arrested.” then they may have had information to the fact that this officer would have hurt another and therefore stepping into the situation immediatley was the only option available to make it the safest.

I agree in the middle of a street (although wasn’t it at 1am) is not the safest place but they seemigly knew this guy was really unstable during and after the investigation and they possibly stopped him from taking his rage to the 17 year old or anyone else who had knowledge of his actions.

Without all the facts forward it seems SMPD may have saved some lives if not some trauma for the victim(s) of this person.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 2:57 pm

MaryMalone

If the target officer already knew he was the subject of an investigation and surveillance, it may have been a situation that, if they tried to get him at his residence, he would have done something nuts like take a hostage, create a stand-off, etc.

I mean, the first thing he did was shoot at a fellow uniformed officer. I don’t think this target officer was very stable–from the information we have to go on now.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 3:40 pm

Slowerfaster

We’ll never know now , since the principle subject is now silent.

What a CLUSTER !

Totally mishandled. I respect the job cops have to do, but most are woefully inadequate in handling hostage type situations.

Look, these guys on scene had all the cards…previous knowledge, planning ; and STILL they messed up !

They permitted a tragedy to happen, when it could have been averted .

Sounds like there is a culture of “Ramboism” in Santa Maria. I’m going to avoid the city like the plague !

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/29/2012 12:48 am

MaryMalone

ITI.

In my post of 01/29/2012 at 7:27 am I have several links to articles about a federal investigation of many, many California LE for illegally selling firearms, many being the ones civilians cannot buy themselves. Two guys were selling them from a hot-dog stand, and one of them had a side business of selling meth.

When you consider the police riot in Oakland which occurred against unarmed civilians (the Occupy situation), which was a complete overreaction and could have ended up with the slaughter of many civilians—

—-and add to that complete ineptitude of our local LE, which shoots each other and misses the perp they are aiming at, and irresponsibly leave their weapons in unlocked vehicles, from which they are stolen–

—AND the federal investigation revealing, so far, some instances of stockpiles of firearms in LE homes, being sold illegally (in at least one occasion, sold by someone who also sells meth)—

——it is very clear that a hostage and/or stand-off situation could have been feared by SMPD, and/or they felt the officer in question was unstable and feared an arrest at his home might end up in citizens being killed.

At this point, I’m no fan of the SMPD, especially it’s chief. However, I think this was an issue of public safety and wanting to avoid a worse situation if the molester-officer was arrested at his home, in a residential situation.

Also, a consideration may have been where the molester-officer lived, the layout of the residence and/or local residences/apartments/condos.

I would think a situation like a condo or apartment building with a central courtyard, with condos/apartments surrounding it on all four sides, would be difficult to secure such that other residents would not be put in danger from a shootout.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/29/2012 7:41 am

Jack L

“Absolutely foolish that SMPD would organize an arrest of a on duty patrol officer out on a public street. The foolish watch commander should have found a reason to call the officer back to the station and then make the arrest.. Ridiculous that the command staff would allow this to occur on a public street and endanger the public with a rogue officer engaged in a police on police shooting.”

A+ Absolutely correct.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 3:20 pm

Cindy

Except Gemini has a point. It’s possible that the SMPD watch commander became aware that the Officer in question knew he was going to be arrested and was acting unstable. Perhaps they were concerned that he would be suspicious of a request to report to headquarters and they weren’t certain what he would do so they waited until 1:AM when the streets were for the most part deserted an then attempted to take him into custody. I’m sure that they aren’t stupid and would not have wanted to arrest one of their own out in public unless it was necessary for some reason. They have pride too and this would have been an embarrassment to arrest an on duty officer in uniform and one of their own out in public. I think time ran out for them and they did what they thought needed to be done when it needed to be done.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 3:40 pm

danika

Puting an “unstable” LEO on the street with a loaded weapon sounds to me like a recipe for disaster. Why not just arrest him when he came in to get his motorcycle?

Where is their “pride” now? They let an unstable officer, resisting arrest, get off a shot that could have injured an citizen. They had to kill him to stop him. There should be no “pride”. There should be concern for public safety AT ALL TIMES.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/29/2012 6:18 am

Jack L

This is almost surreal like a movie plot. This is not common anywhere in the USA. More like Mexico’s way of distributing justice. Bummer for all invloved incuding the now departed LEO.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 1:36 pm

MaryMalone

It will be interesting to see what the story is at the press conference at 2:00 and whether it makes more sense than the story told the last time a SMPD officer shot another officer.

In any event, what an unfortunate outcome of what was an unfortunate surveillance to begin with.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 1:34 pm

willie

What did he hope to accompolish (being in uniform) drawing his gun and suddenly shooting at other uniformed officers approaching to serve him an arrest warrant?

Take a look at CCN’s home page. Two very serious articles, side by side both involving local LE in fact these are two of the most serious articles where LE has departed from any semblance of reasonable conduct that I have seen in a long time and it’s right here in our county.

I do feel very sorry for the Officers who had to fire on another Officer from their own department. How sad, one would think that if anyone knows how it feels to be hijacked into a role in the game of “suicide by cop”, it would have been the now deceased officer. My condolences to all ………..

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 2:05 pm

bobfromsanluis

Um, not quite accurate: The incident in Atascadero involved an off duty San Luis Obispo police officer, not an officer from the APD; however, the APD did handle the whole situation with the road rage incident very poorly, and there have been other incidences of bad judgement by the APD as well.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 2:15 pm

Cindy

I’m aware of those incidents and others where the behavior of the PD’s and their affiliates was unacceptable. However these two recent incidents “top all the others by far”. We are hearing about a Police Chief who is sexually assaulting her own staff and then trumping up charges against them is they tell ! We are hearing about a sworn Officer molesting a child and then shooting at his own colleagues and committing suicide by cop when they attempt to arrest him.

Bad behavior doesn’t get much worse that that unless your talking about LA or Chicago and even then scandals worse than these two recent incidents aren’t all that common. This is the beautiful, peaceful, Central Coast from cripes sakes, it’s where people dream of coming to retire, it’s where people come to raise their families while commuting to LA or SF and lots do it for the sake of living here.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 3:25 pm

danika

This goes to the lack of moral compass as I posted earlier.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/29/2012 6:20 am

MaryMalone

Outside of the LACo jail-which has been a c-frack for a long while now–the LA Co Sheriffs Department is a pretty good outfit, considering the high-crime areas they cover and the size of the organization.

I read the LATimes every day, and I also have a relative and friends in Sheriffs Department. Overall, they are more professional and less dufus-laden than our local LE agencies, the likes of which I’ve never experienced before.

I’m not saying there aren’t LE organizations that are worse than our local ones….I’ve just had the grade of god to never have experienced them before.

And it’s not just that our local agencies are inept, bumbling and corrupt. It’s that it is allowed to go on for fracking DECADES, even after high-profile incidents.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/29/2012 7:50 am

whoowhoo

Didn’t the APD give Chief Soloman her (unregistered) gun back when it was recovered? Lack of judgment indeed…

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 3:42 pm

LAHermosa

Don’t forget in you tally to include AGPD Chief Steven Annibali harassing, discrimanating and retailiating against his female officers.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 10:23 pm

Typoqueen

Gosh if this story is accurate I feel so sorry for the cop that was forced to shoot this guy. I wonder if this was one of those cases of suicide, being a cop he must have known that he would end up on the losing end of that battle. I hope CCN keep us updated, I would like to read the details as they come out.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 1:22 pm

bobfromsanluis

A sad day for Santa Maria. I’m sure this was traumatic for the officer involve in the shooting, my condolences to the dead officers family, and really hope that the minor he molested or raped gets all of the help she or he needs. Sad.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 12:33 pm

Jack L

Sometimes it’s a career ender, too much psychological stress. The local cities are getting pretty crazy as of late. The future seems to be even weirder.

Vote Up0Vote Down

01/28/2012 3:24 pm

willie

It appears pretty self explainatory to me.

It makes me wander what other undisclosed crime that officer has done.